Ironic Quote of the Day
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
I came across this commencement speech and read it out of curiosity because of who the speaker was. Some of the quotes, given who was saying it, floored me. See if you can guess who said all of this:
Now, in the world that I live in people always think they’re right. Now, I know that’s probably true of a lot of worlds, and maybe it’s even true of the faculty here. But part of what happens—ooh, that got a little bit of a … [laughter], that’s why they’re sitting behind the students—there’s a premium placed on opinions. There’s a premium placed on being outrageous, on being provocative—not necessarily having opinions that are rooted in reality and rooted in fact, but opinions that will get people’s attention. To me, that’s not very valuable.
The great New York senator, Pat Moynihan, once said, you’re entitled to your own opinions, but you’re not entitled to your own facts. Now, I couldn’t agree more, but that has become a quaint notion in our society because even though there is more information available than there has ever been in history, people are basically inventing their own facts—and they’re using specious information to justify it. And that’s why—I have it right here—I brought my long-form birth certificate [laughter] to show that I was born in America. [Applause and laughter]
At the same time, there is what I think of in my world and I think in American politics on the left and right, there’s an epidemic of certainty—people who are absolutely sure that they know that they’re right. And I find this a little irksome. And those of you who have studied science know that modern neuroscience tells you that certainty is a state of mind; it’s not an appraisal of the state of the world. It’s some temporal lobe stimulation, some synapses firing in your brain, that gives you that feeling of knowing that you’re right. It doesn’t necessarily correspond to the world. The brain creates that feeling of rightness, not the world itself.
And of that, I am almost certain.
So who said it? Look below the fold…
Richard Stengel. Yeah, sorry if I am being on one note lately, but like I said I was really floored reading this one. I mean doesn’t he fit this pattern? He absolutely knew he was right in all those ways he was wrong about the Constitution. And certainly that Time magazine cover story is more successful at being “outrageous” and “provocative” than at being “rooted in reality and rooted in fact[.]”
There is not much wrong with what he said, mind you. I would quibble that while there is some wiggle room on many topics, there are some facts that are just facts, there are some things you can be certain of. But I am not sure if that is an actual disagreement so much as a difference in emphasis. My real problem is that he seems to have failed to understand how that applies to himself. The mind boggles.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
Hey Stengel is the kind of guy who can say–with a straight face while pulling 30 inches of vacuum between his airhead ears: I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong.
Mike Myers (0e06a9) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:15 pmRichard is quite a confusing man.
This little discussion of myth making provocateurs sounds suspiciously like something I’d say about Ricky. As you say, the mind boggles.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:16 pmOh, the pretension! Pot meet kettle, blah, blah, blah.
No thanks, I’ll stick with Conan’s humble little Dartmouth commencement speech. No pretension in his wheelhouse.
Dana (4eca6e) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:20 pmStengel wrote:
“Here are a few things the framers did not know about: World War II. DNA. Sexting. Airplanes. The atom. Television. Medicare. Collateralized debt obligations. The germ theory of disease. Miniskirts. The internal combustion engine. Computers. Antibiotics. Lady Gaga.”
Had they known about Lady Gaga they’d probably would have said we should stay with England.
Arizona Bob (7d2a2c) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:21 pmJob interview …
Employer – DiCK, what is your greatest strength?
DiCK Stengel – I am totally and completely self-unaware, and can spew out my bibble babble without even blinking.
JD (d48c3b) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:25 pmOH SYNAPSES!
SarahW (af7312) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:33 pmIronic? It reads like a CONFESSION!
Icy Texan (07c5b7) — 7/8/2011 @ 2:59 pmComment by Arizona Bob — 7/8/2011 @ 2:21 pm
The founders did not try to deal with all aspects of life. What they did understand very well was that a strong government would tend to want to increase it’s power, reduce it’s accountability and increase it’s security until it no longer need fear the people. They tried very hard to create a Constitution that would make this power grab difficult and provide the people with the needed tools to restrain that government and keep it serving the people.
This they did very well and history has shown they were amazingly correct in their understanding of the nature of men and bureaucrats. Science and history move forward but the human nature is pretty much the same as it was then.
We have seen the brilliant success of that Constitution in raising the United States to a world power and making us a beacon and a champion of freedom in the world. We have also seen the terrible consequences of letting government slip it’s restraints and turn on us.
I think the founders are very well vindicated and have far more to be proud of than our generation. What are we leaving our posterity compared to what they left theirs?
Machinist (b6f7da) — 7/8/2011 @ 3:28 pmand history has shown they were amazingly correct in their understanding of the nature of men and bureaucrats.
I made this point at the first Stengel post. While the founders may not have known about the particulars of what modern culture would bring, the one thing they knew inside and out was the very fallible, weak and prideful unchanging nature of man. No matter the external trappings, they knew men in power would always be subjected to the same temptations to seize power and abuse it. And as time has passed, we certainly see this truth unfold again and again…
I think that’s a very important point to recognize as it gives us insight into their essential wisdom and foresight.
Dana (4eca6e) — 7/8/2011 @ 3:33 pmI didn’t read the comments on that thread. Sorry if I ripped you off. Not intentional.
Machinist (b6f7da) — 7/8/2011 @ 3:38 pmMachinist – agreed. The Founders left our country with a future full of optimism, and the chance to succeed. We are giving our children a future full of IOU’s and government intrusion.
JD (29e1cd) — 7/8/2011 @ 3:41 pmOh Machinist, please, I was not implying that at all! I was just emphatically nodding my head in complete agreement because it seems that particular point was overlooked. You’ve expressed it more fully.
Man’s basic nature never changes, never will, and is always forever tempted by the pride of life – whatever form it takes. Realizing that the founders had an understanding of that puts the living breathing document hoopla in a correct perspective.
Dana (4eca6e) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:07 pmI thought it was Obama as I read it. The Moynihan quote sounded familiar.
Although, thinking about it, it was Obama. These folks all think alike. I also think they are sincere. I worry that my kids will turn out like this; sure of what they think they know. The two oldest are lawyers and Obama supporters and I don’t know how that happened.
I have tried to ask them why and we just can’t communicate. Some of it, with my oldest son anyway, is resistance to the father. It is a family joke that, if I announced that I was voting for Obama, my son would show up at a tea party rally.
In fact, I think that is a lot of what is behind the political left. Some oedipal thing that requires the child to hate the father. Maybe that is why they support the Islamists although they would last about 5 minutes with an Islamist society.
Mike K (8f3f19) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:11 pmI’ve said this before, I think, and I don’t mean to sound tiresome.
If anyone can find the source of that sentiment—it cannot be original with me, and I cannot recall the source—please let me know.
So, does anyone think that Mr. Stengel would be making the comments he he has been if a Republican administration and Senate were pushing their agenda? As usual, the Left believes itself to be pure of heart, and thus will always use power for “the Good.”
But even if that is the case, those same precedents can be used by “the other side”! So anyone who coos about the Founders “not minding” increased central governmental power is self-deluded on a number of levels.
What Stengel means, I think, is far, far simpler: I want my side to do what it wants without opposition.
I know lots of people on the Right who are suspicious or opposed to members of the Right with “R”s after their names. I don’t know many people on the Left who are opposing anyone…well, on the Left.
Sorry for the sermon. But watching supposedly smart people say outstandingly dumb things—without any sense of history—saddens me.
Simon Jester (fde20c) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:16 pmI’ve said this before, I think, and I don’t mean to sound tiresome.
If anyone can find the source of that sentiment—it cannot be original with me, and I cannot recall the source—please let me know.
So, does anyone think that Mr. Stengel would be making the comments he he has been if a Republican administration and Senate were pushing their agenda? As usual, the Left believes itself to be pure of heart, and thus will always use power for “the Good.”
But even if that is the case, those same precedents can be used by “the other side”! So anyone who coos about the Founders “not minding” increased central governmental power is self-deluded on a number of levels.
What Stengel means, I think, is far, far simpler: I want my side to do what it wants without opposition.
I know lots of people on the Right who are suspicious or opposed to members of the Right with “R”s after their names. I don’t know many people on the Left who are opposing anyone…well, on the Left.
Sorry for the sermon. But watching supposedly smart people say outstandingly dumb things—without any sense of history—saddens me.
Simon Jester (fde20c) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:16 pmAnd sorrier for the double post. What was that about?
Simon Jester (fde20c) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:17 pmThis is a clear and convincing illustration of just how utterly deluded and prone to projection the left is. Stengle is so encapsulated in his fanasy that I’m surprised he can function at all.
davo (995c24) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:18 pmDr. K. I think you are partially correct about “Daddy-hatred” driving the Left. They oppose authoritarians like crazy…unless someone with a “D” after their name does it.
Is Gitmo closed, incidentally? Rendition halted? No blood for oil (re: Libya)? Hmmm.
When I was in graduate school, I took the bus between two nearby universities. In front of me was an academic couple in their fifties (this was in the 80s). They were all decked out in protest gear, and were wearing hemp clothing.
Anyway, they were complaining about their teenaged daughter. They had raised her correctly, the assured each other: taken her to protest marches and sit-ins and the like. And all she wanted to do was go to the mall, shop, and get her nails done.
Why wasn’t she rebelling against authority?
Butting in, I laughed at them. “Don’t you see,” I told them, “she is rebelling. Against you.”
They were outraged. “No, no, no! We mean against authority that is restricting our freedoms!”
So I asked them if they gave their daughter a curfew and a budget, and how did she feel about those things?
They didn’t get it: they weren’t revolutionaries. They were “the Man.”
And that is what so “Animal Farm”-ish about the Left. They are all strident and revolutionary against authority they don’t like…and they goosestep with the best of them when that authority is associated with their own political fashion.
Food for thought. And maybe hope for the future?
Simon Jester (fde20c) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:24 pmSimon – some on the left oppose some Dems, for not being leftist enough 😉
JD (b98cae) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:27 pmDana
i just want to note that Conan had easily the greatest commencement speech ever. thanks for sharing that.
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:39 pmDana – I fully concur – Conan’s commencement speech should be required reading for future commencement speakers, as well as for students …
Alasdair (e7cb73) — 7/8/2011 @ 5:52 pmAlas
gotta respectfully disagree there. required viewing is more like it.
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 7/8/2011 @ 8:08 pmThank you, Dana. My compliments.
Machinist (b6f7da) — 7/8/2011 @ 8:33 pmLeftism is a mental disorder. Arrested development is a part of it.
SGT Ted (5d10ae) — 7/9/2011 @ 6:46 amStengle hearts conspicuous conceptualization.
ropelight (4d0efb) — 7/9/2011 @ 7:00 am____________________________________________
And those of you who have studied science know that modern neuroscience tells you that certainty is a state of mind
Stengel sounds like he has a greater sense of self-awareness than what I’d associated with a person of the left. Of course, there are a variety of liberals who do hold strongly to their biases, yet when describing themselves or their politics, they slightly pause and then use the word “progressive” instead of “liberal.” So some of them must sense, at least deepdown, a deficient, foolish or phony quality about their outlook on things. Hence, the dynamics of the limousine liberal.
I’d say people who have been leftists or rightists all their life perhaps have brains that are genetically wired that way. But for other folks who alter their politics based on observations and statistics picked up during their lifetime, it’s probably a matter of their ability to use common sense and logic in overcoming emotions or — in particular, if they started off on the left — their original immaturity.
Mark (411533) — 7/9/2011 @ 8:15 amI don’t think Richard is the cleverest in his family – his uncle Casey was really much more witty, and it would not surprise me if he knew much more than little Dick about the mindset of the Founding Fathers, too.
sherlock (62f2cf) — 7/9/2011 @ 8:27 am“…although they would last about 5 minutes with an Islamist society…”
Comment by Mike K — 7/8/2011 @ 5:11 pm
Perhaps a coming of Shariah would be beneficial:
AD-RtR/OS! (4b35a7) — 7/9/2011 @ 11:29 amThose of us who believe in Freedom & Liberty will withdraw from the urban-cores and engage in a little All-American guerilla warfare
(which we will prevail in, for that is The American Way – there will be damn few lawyers leading us, present company excepted),
and while that struggle is engaged, the Islamists will be cleaning out the detritus of society for us.
It is a good thing the Framers gave us the Article V process, so we can compensate for what they did not know.
Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 7/9/2011 @ 1:32 pm